cannabisnews.com: Cannabis Profits 'Funding Terrorism' 





Cannabis Profits 'Funding Terrorism' 
Posted by CN Staff on August 08, 2003 at 23:08:16 PT
By Isambard Wilkinson
Source: Daily Telegraph UK
In the green fields around the whitewashed town of Chaouen, sickles glinted in the thin morning light as farm workers cut and stacked sheaves of cannabis, reaping this year's bumper harvest. In the Rif mountains of Morocco, kif - the word for cannabis - covers the valleys and hillsides in profusion.The illicit crop is Morocco's biggest foreign currency earner and, according to EU estimates, is worth £2 billion a year, making the country the world's largest hashish exporter.
For a long time the Moroccan authorities have turned a blind eye to the smuggling trade that accompanies cannabis cultivation. The impoverished region has a fiercely independent character and its economy depends on the cannabis trade.But now, like much else in Morocco since May 16 when Islamic suicide bomb attacks killed 32 people in Casablanca, all that is about to change.Reports have been circulating among Moroccan officials and Western diplomats that some of the profits from the Rif's cannabis have found their way to fund Islamic terrorism.One Western diplomatic source said: "We have heard some evidence that perhaps terrorist cells that were based in Tangier were mixed up in the drug smuggling industry. It is of great concern and efforts are now being made to substantiate those claims."After the attacks, King Mohammed VI announced that Morocco's "period of leniency" towards Islamic fundamentalists was over.More than 700 Islamist terrorist suspects have been rounded up and the king has given warning that no Islamist or regional political parties would be tolerated."The situation in the Rif is now under review," said a senior Moroccan court official.Pascual Moreno, the director of an EU anti-drugs programme in the area said that action must be taken soon. Mr Moreno, a Spanish agronomist, said: "They have created a society of smugglers not wealth."He added: "In the future, if they do not sort out this problem they face the likelihood of separatism growing in the Rif and a growth of Islamic terrorism more generally. It is a potentially explosive area."The problem is not new. After independence from France in 1962, the king's father, Hassan II, faced an uprising in the area and personally led his armies into battle.The problem remains immense. Of the region's five million inhabitants, one million people depend on cannabis for a living. The scale of Morocco's kif cultivation is far higher than officials are willing to admit.Mr Moreno, whose stint trying to encourage farmers in the region to adopt alternative forms of agriculture is soon to end, has angered both Rabat and Brussels with his assessment. He said that the kif is tumbling down the mountain far from its traditional area, with the harvest doubling every three years.He estimated that 600,000 acres are now under kif cultivation, three times more than Morocco's estimates.Mr Moreno, who has worked in Morocco for 25 years, said the EU's £750,000 pilot project was a failure.He said: "Give them goats to produce cheese? Really? You cannot persuade them to earn 10 to 40 times less."He added: "These projects are made to please European public opinion. It is badly conceived. They think it is an agricultural problem. It is not. It is a question how much money farmers will gain."To take on the cannabis growers the Moroccan authorities will have to tackle an intricate web of mafias based in the mountain redoubt of Ketama, in the heartlands of the "Green Gold". On the winding 60-mile road from Chaouen to Ketama, hawkers sporadically leap out from the shade of pine trees brandishing slabs of hashish, much of which is mixed with goat excrement.The spindly crop is grown by the roadside, thinly veiled by a row or two of maize. Along this route is smuggled about 70 per cent of Europe's hashish according to the World Customs Association.In Ketama, dirty concrete block houses form the backdrop of a wild west frontier town. Buxom saloon girls totter along filthy roads on high heels, and the scions of local smuggling families listen to country and western music in hotel bars.The smugglers who come to buy are involved not just in moving blocks of hashish across the Strait of Gibraltar but also in organising the big business of smuggling illegal immigrants across the water.One Moroccan expert on kif cultivation is sceptical that much change can be achieved, pointing out that growing the crop is legal in the region but transporting it is not.He said: "They just pay off the police at the checkpoints. It is powerful people who move at the highest level who control the smuggling. How come the growers are still poor? There is no will to stop it. The land is being destroyed so they just keep spreading out in lower areas."He added: "Some of the smallholders are fed up they have to buy the seeds in the first place and they face the risk of being shopped to the police if things go wrong."In Tleta Ketama, five miles away, the police commissioner ordered an escort to drive me out of his province, declaring: "There is no problem here. No drug mafias."The window behind him gave out on to a yellow and blue mosque, surrounded by terraced fields of green cannabis.Another officer looked out at the scene. "Ah, nature!" he said.Note: Morocco's £2 billion hashish trade is under threat in the wake of suicide bomb attacks. Isambard Wilkinson reports from Ketama.Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)Author: Isambard Wilkinson Published: Saturday, August 08, 2003Copyright: 2003 Telegraph Group LimitedContact: dtletters telegraph.co.ukWebsite: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Related Articles:Morocco Top of Europe's Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16393.shtmlAdventures In The Dope Tradehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16146.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by 312 on August 10, 2003 at 19:57:33 PT
Morrocan hash
Here is an interesting article I read a few months back on Morocco/Moroccan hash for those who are interested.Within is the following paragragh:"To procure hashish, we stopped at roadside cafes and restaurants where men gathered at tables sipping the delicious, ever-present mint tea while smoking cannabis resins mixed with homegrown tobacco. A few men spoke English; they told me cannabis and homegrown tobacco were illegal, but that penalties for illegal tobacco were far worse than penalties for marijuana!"Why is this you ask? It's the money, stupid!
Moroccan hashish journey
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Comment #9 posted by rchandar on August 09, 2003 at 19:34:41 PT:
morocco?
virgil--yes, and (you could probably see) much of this article was done over a year ago, perhaps in the hope of giving more notoriety to morocco's "drug question." this all happens while european governments debate the decriminalization of cannabis. translation, especially if you believe nol van schaik: most marijuana and hashish in the EU DOES NOT come from non-EU countries.but, that, of course, doesn't matter. what matters to the prohibitionists is that they raise the scepter of histrionic, alarming formulas of criminal fantasy. the "truth" no longer matters in european politics; but, i'll let that go, because IT NEVER MATTERED in american politics. so i'll try not to hate your situation, but it still is no good.
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Comment #8 posted by rchandar on August 09, 2003 at 19:26:46 PT:
morocco?
aha!so you see! european politicians are gutless bastards--like our american politicians!what incredible and saucy hypocrisy! and at the same time, the european governments want to decriminalize (but not, no never, legalize) marijuana!! as if the moroccan trade really contributes to any major share of the market in europe!!gutless bastards. repeat over and over. very, very simple.
they don't want the moroccan people to prosper; they just want them to follow THEIR rules. sounds a lot like colonialism, doesn't it?              --anonymous
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Comment #7 posted by Virgil on August 09, 2003 at 11:50:38 PT
Spreading the words for freedom
I very seldom put up articles at hempcity, but I did this one- http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=784#784
A copy and paste of my introduction follows.The prohibitionists are out demonizing cannabis again without recognition that it is its own prohibition policies that create the plant that grows gold. All reason is turned on its head by the prohibitionist that always blame the plant instead of their beloved prohibition. This article is titled "Cannabis Profits Funding Terrorism" and comes from the Daily Telegraph in the UK. It is not likely that it will appear in a major US outlet as silence is the major tactic in preserving the cruel prohibition, at least until the idea is floated for a reaction in the UK- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/09/whash09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/08/09/ixportal.html This article also appears at cannabisnews.com- http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17023.shtml if you would like to visit and comment there.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on August 09, 2003 at 11:02:11 PT
Related News Brief from UPI
Marijuana Profits May 'Fund Terrorism'RABAT, Morocco, Aug. 9 (UPI) -- Morocco's $3.2 billion marijuana trade is under threat in the wake of suicide bomb attacks, a report said Saturday.For a long time the Moroccan authorities have turned a blind eye to the smuggling trade that accompanies cannabis cultivation, The London Daily Telegraph reported. The illicit crop is Morocco's biggest foreign currency earner and, according to EU estimates, is worth $3 billion a year -- making the country the world's largest marijuana exporter.But, since May 16 when Islamic suicide bomb attacks killed 32 people in Casablanca, that may change, the Telegraph said. "We have heard some evidence that perhaps terrorist cells that were based in Tangier were mixed up in the drug smuggling industry. It is of great concern and efforts are now being made to substantiate those claims," one Western diplomatic source told the Telegraph. 
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Comment #5 posted by John Tyler on August 09, 2003 at 08:39:57 PT
Money talks
This line says it all...The illicit crop is Morocco's biggest foreign currency earner and, according to EU estimates, is worth £2 billion a year, making the country the world's largest hashish exporter. 
It's about the money. Nobody wants to be poor. Even Republicans should understand that. What is needed is a legal, regulated market, not sanctimonious blather.
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Comment #4 posted by bongman439 on August 09, 2003 at 06:36:43 PT
Ewww
Good points all. 'bout all I can add is I hope I never run across any of that Goat-Shit hash :P
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Comment #3 posted by goneposthole on August 09, 2003 at 06:23:34 PT
Where does the money really come from 
? hmmm Who are the real culprits, here, in the real world?linusmoke:well, lets take a look at those FACTS, shall we?did you know that a person is much more likely to be supporting terrorism if they simply fill their car with gas, and the more gas they use the more money they are sending to the saudi oil barons whose moneys go to the recruitment and training operations of known terrorist groups? ... or dint you realize, mr president, that 15 out of the 19 plane-bombers were from saudi arabia? "Today, I drove my kids to soccer in my oversized gas-guzzling SUV, drank two $5 lattes at Starbucks, and helped kill hundreds of innocent people at the Pentagon."more facts: DIAMONDS are another of the biggest ways that these terrorists fund their operations. al qaeda has used 10s of millions of dollars in profits from the diamond industry to finance their dirty work. so howcome i dont see any rich bitches in these fuckin DEA ads fingering their diamond necklaces and earrings, going:"Today my husband gave me a new diamond tennis bracelet, and we also helped to plow two jumbo jets into the world trade center."http://www.linusmoke.com/journal/20020502.html
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Comment #2 posted by WolfgangWylde on August 09, 2003 at 06:20:48 PT
Pure BS...
...of course. And really, if it were true, I can't think of ANY way at all to ensure that cannabis doesn't fund terrorism. I mean, really, its all just so complicated, there really is no way to break the link. Unless, of course, Europe's leaders continue down their current path of pulling their heads out of their collective backsides (got the ears out by now, miles ahead of their U.S. counterparts) and legalize cannabis completely.
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Comment #1 posted by Dan B on August 09, 2003 at 03:47:37 PT
Note:
Please understand, though, that virtually none of the Moroccan weed or hash makes it to the United States. Any that does manage to make it here is the rare exception to the rule, most likely brought back from somebody's trip to Europe. Furthermore, there is no evidence that any of the cannabis is in fact being used to finance terrorism. At this point, there is only speculation, and my guess (well-informed, I might add) is that pressure to find such a link is coming from the United States. Check out these quotations: But now, like much else in Morocco since May 16 when Islamic suicide bomb attacks killed 32 people in Casablanca, all that is about to change.Reports have been circulating among Moroccan officials and Western diplomats that some of the profits from the Rif's cannabis have found their way to fund Islamic terrorism.One Western diplomatic source said: "We have heard some evidence that perhaps terrorist cells that were based in Tangier were mixed up in the drug smuggling industry. It is of great concern and efforts are now being made to substantiate those claims." "Reports have been circulating," "One Western diplomatic source," "some evidence," "perhaps"--do these sound like the words of conviction to you? Does it not sound like the "source" is coming from the United States? Does not the "connection" between cannabis and terrorism originate with the United States? The title of this article sounds definite: "Cannabis Profits 'Funding Terrorism,'" but when you read the article, a completely different picture emerges. There is no evidence that such funding is taking place. There is conjecture and rumor, nothing more.Chock this report up to more United States drug war propaganda.Dan B
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